Latest Happenings

Where to start.
Apollo is now in Fort madison. He is staying at a stable there. Sunday the temp reached almost 60 degrees at noon. By 2:30 the temp fell to 37. At 3:00PM we were waiting for the truck that was transporting Apollo. It started raining, then sleeting, and lastly downpouring. Apollo loaded well. He went half in the trailer right from the start. Luckily the rain stopped while we were loading him. It started raining again after he left. When the truck bought the trailer back at 6:00Pm, the truck had ice buildup on it. It rained the rest of the night.

I had the tire fixed on the van. It was covered by road side hazard. Cost half of a new tire. Installed a new blend air relay for the heater in the van. It is nice having heat in the van when the temp falls to 1.8 degrees.

Tried to start the tractor last night. The battery is weak, I may have to jump it to start it. Snow is falling as I type.

The goats are adjusting well to being under the lean to. No baby goats. I don't think they were breed. Guess I'll wait to have them deliver in the spring. Well, that's how it is on the farm.

Busy Weekend

What a day! First I moved the tractor out of the barn so I could pull the van in there. The van has a bad tire. Flat actually. Took the tire off and couldn’t get the spare down. I ended up cutting the cable that holds the spare tire up against the van frame. I did all this while lying in the snow. The tire has a pin whole at the top of the sidewall (of course) so I’ll have to get another tire at $80.

I moved the goats to the lean to. I have to build their shelter box Saturday. I have to run the top strand for the fence today so I can let them out in the yard.

Went to cut a Yule tree for the kids. Walked to the edge of the field and 2 does jumped up. The hunters at work are sitting in deer stands at O-dark thirty and here I (a vegetarian) am out at noon walking with chainsaw in hand and kick up 2 does. You have to enjoy the irony of that.

I have to work on the horse trailer so Apollo can be moved to another stable. Then I have to start enclosing the barn across the pond. Just another day on the farm.

Where'd it go?

The month of November rushed by. A lot has happened since I last posted. Our three foster children went to their grandma’s house to live. I hope they are doing well. We now have two girls that may be with us permanently. We are excited. The girls like the outdoors, which is good, and the animals.

We have to work on the “sharing” thing and they play well with other children.

We still don’t have any goat kids. At this point I hope we don’t get any. It is too cold to have kids in the barn. Maybe in the spring we’ll have some. We got snow the last weekend in November.

The chickens have started laying eggs again. Went through a dry spell for about 2 months without any eggs. Starting to get 2-4 eggs now.

Moved the horses across the pond to the shelter house. I still have to enclose it. I have been trying to clean the barn up but that’s a loosing battle. Seems like every time I go to start, some thing else gets in the way. At least my tool room is getting cleaned up a little. Just have to keep people from putting stuff in there.

We are getting ready to decorate for Yule. I have to find our Yule log so the girls can start lighting it.

More to come later.

Finding Time

I’m trying to find the time to clean up the Halloween stuff left in the barn. By the time the kids are picked up from the house it is time to do chores and do stuff in the house. Monday and Tuesday nights Christine is gone. Trying to get anything done with the kids around is almost impossible.

Tonight is trick or treating at the mall and the auditorium. Tomorrow Christine and I have a conference to go to. That pretty much leaves Sunday to get things done. I need more time than that. I have to clean up the barn, put in fence post, string wire, and move the goats.

Apollo is still here. He was supposed to be gone by Saturday but it doesn’t look like it. I will probably have to get rid of him.

Christine and I went riding last night. Midnight (the horse) was good overall. She did catch attitude a couple of times. She would try to bite my foot when I flexed her. Then she wanted to run to the barn before I was finished with my ride. I weaved her in and out the tree line. After a few minutes of that she calmed down.

I think I’m going to light bonfire for tonight and clean the barn while Christine and Claudia take the kids T or T.

Haunting Barn

We had a Haunting Barn set up for Halloween Sunday for the children. It went pretty well considering the wind gusts and the drop in temperature. We put our tent poles up in the barn and covered them with black plastic. Then decorated it with lights, webs, and the usual scary stuff.

We had a rough Saturday night with the visiting boy. He through one of his worst fits. It seems like it is always around bedtime. He’s up all day at school then tries to stay up most of the night even though we send him to bed at 8 PM. It is getting old.

It looks like some good things are heading our way. There should be plenty to celebrate this Holiday Season. More to follow on that.

Trying to move the goats over to the barn. It is going slow. I have to put up a fence first. The goats still haven’t had kids yet. They are getting big but nothing yet.

We did get a new horse. Her name is Midnight Beauty. She is very gentle it seems. She has become top mare. HD runs from her. I haven’t had a chance to ride her yet. Apollo is moving to another place. The liability of having someone else’s animals out there while we have other people’s children is too great. I don’t want to be sued.

If my chickens don’t start laying eggs, they are going to the cutting block.

Delores is off the property. She is telling anyone who will listen that we are kicking her off the property. Whatever. All I care about is I don’t have to put up with her out there any more.

Secret Room

I started moving my stuff into the secret room in the barn. The “secret room” is the name I gave to a room built inside the barn. It was where Delores stored her stuff. It had old books, carpet remnants, backpacks, this and that in there.

I laid claims to it a while back. I just want a space to call my own. A lockable space that I can put my tools, start and finish small projects, sit and have a cup of coffee, and perhaps design a few things for use around the farm.

Anyway, I started moving my stuff in there. I had to sweep up some mice droppings, old insulation, and about a pound of beetles. Now I just have to keep people from storing stuff in there just because there are shelves in there. It’s MINE all MINE.

We cleaned out some of the garage so Christine can pull a vehicle in. Now she doesn’t have to worry about the rain or snow. The kids will be able to get in and out of the vehicle without worries.

Christine’s grand parents are supposed to be gone today. Milford is ready to pull out and park over at Randy K’s.(his son). Delores is stocking the trailer cabinets with her stuff that didn’t sell at the auction or isn’t taking with her. The same trailer Claudia is supposed to be renting.

Delores doesn’t want to clutter up Randy’s place. She would rather inconvenience the people that are going to rent her trailer. This way she can store her stuff and get someone to pay rent and Delores doesn’t have to pay a thing. It’s all about the money. I hope she doesn’t think she is putting stuff back in the barn. If so I am charging a storage fee.

The sewage backed up again in the trailer. Claudia and Rich weren’t happy to hear that. Christine and I told Claudia to get a contract drawn up stating the responsibilities of the two parties involved in the renting of that trailer. Delores will bite them in the ass if they don’t. I say good riddance Delores.

We got a new horse this morning. We traded Lacey for this black one. I don’t know her name. She is gentler than Lacey. Still no goat kids. Chickens are still not laying that great. I get 2-3 eggs a day from over 14 hens. Not a good ratio.

Life Goes On

Kathy and I started cleaning out the secret room. I threw some junk on the trailer and hauled it to the fire pit. Up in flames. Perhaps this weekend I’ll get a chance to move some of my stuff over there before it fills up with other stuff.

Goats still haven’t had kids yet. The coyotes are starting to get more active. I have been hearing a lot of yelping lately. The chickens haven’t been laying many eggs. I only get 2-3 a day. Some of them look like they may be molting. I have to clean the coop.

Home life is driving me crazy. I come home, kids are whining. I ask them to stop or what is wrong and they elevate their volume. I don’t have much “Me” time. Kids show up at 5:30 AM and stay until 5:00 PM. Then we get the visiting kids ready to eat dinner, do homework, and take baths and before we know it it’s time for us to get to bed and repeat the whole process again. All our cleaning time, quite time, and leisure time has been reduced drastically. I need a vacation. Alone would be nice.

Auction Day

It started off as normal. Christine and I got up to receive the Daycare kids at 5:30AM. At 6:00AM I put the overalls on and headed to the barn. I was wondering if Milford (Christine’s G-Pa) started moving stuff out of his garage and barn. The Auctioneer was coming at 7:30AM.

The barn area was still dark so I took the opportunity to walk around the barn area and soak up some silence. I walked back to the house and seen Claudia outside so I talked with her for a few minutes. I went inside and got another cup of coffee and headed back to the barn.

I seen Milford’s garage opening and headed that way. I helped him uncover the hay racks that held all the stuff. He didn’t want to move too much stuff until the Auctioneer arrived. I had to being the school kids to the bus stop so I went back to the house.

Met the Auctioneer coming up the lane, the time was 7:45AM. Put the kids on the bus and headed back to the barn. We started moving the hayracks out of the barn. I was trying to hide my pleasure of getting that stuff out of there. I headed back home so Christine could go to the auction. The auction started at 11:00 AM.

I put Kamera down for a nap and watched some TV. I noticed the cars and trucks parking on the hay field and starting to move up the lane toward the house. I pulled my vehicles up to block the lane and the advancement of cars towards my yard.

Kamera woke up and I headed over to the auction. Delores was walking around with her sour face. She was trying to fluff things up to make them more appealing to buyers. I kept my distance from her. I did however hear some of her comments.

She told one of her kids that bought something, “that sold for half of what it is worth”. Was she sad it didn’t sell for more? Did she want the kids to spend more to fatten her Delores fund? Other comments were; “I can’t believe it only sold for that”, “I worked so hard on that”, “That was ‘so-and-so’s”, and my favorite one was the one she made to my wife.

Earlier that morning. Randy came over to the house and got the crock we use to make kraut with. This crock has been in the family for a couple generations. We traditionally make kraut in it every year. Delores wanted to put it on the auction. Christine was pissed to say the least. When the crock came up for sale Christine stood up front and just held her bid number up until she won it. The price she paid wasn’t that high considering what this crock means to her.

Delores comes over after Christine bought it and say, “I can’t believe you paid that much for that, I know you can’t afford it.” Christine spun around looked at her grandma with draggers and said, “Don’t worry about it, it is mine now” and turned and walked away. I was watching Delores as Christine said that. Delores looked stunned that Christine would say something like that in that tone of voice. She got the “deer in the headlight” look and turned and went back to the auction.

We went to the house with the crock. Just another day at the farm. SOLD!

What a Weekend!

This weekend sucked.
Friday night Christine took the kids into town for dinner with our nephews and her parents. I stayed home to get chore done and wasn’t really wanting to go into town. The kids hardly ate anything. Christine bought home some of their food. After dinner the boy runs out the restaurant and almost gets hit. Christine yells at him to stop. He figures he’s in trouble and starts his screaming and crying. He screamed all the way home from town. Randy rode home with them. He was ready to put the boy out at the end of the lane and have him talk to the house. Poor Christine and Randy.

When they got home he was screaming and went right into time-out. He finally stopped his screaming long enough for Christine to talk to him. She told him she yelled at him to get him to stop so he wouldn’t get hit by that car. We got them to bed and went to bed ourselves.

The first thing Saturday morning the 2 older visiting kids were at it. They were squabbling, nit-picking, and just down right aggravating each other. I sent them outside to play or watch a movie in the hall. You’d think I stuck them in the eye with a hot poker the way they reacted. The boy falls on the ground and starts that ear splitting wailing. He sounds like a little girl screaming. Nothing against little girls but that is all I can think of comparing it to. I think they have trouble comprehending what you say. I say one thing and they hear another thing.

The day progressively got worst from there. The boy spent a great deal of time in time-out. Most of the time-outs were spent outside. He starts rubbing his head when he is getting ready to explode. I tell him to relax do a little controlled breathing. Sometimes I think he just wants his way and his mom may have given in to him when he pulls this.

I am getting pretty tired of it. Saturday evening I had had it. The boy was outside whining and I went into the kitchen and told Christine I am ready to put a ten day request on him. That is a request for DHS to find another place for the child within 10 days. As usual the crying started when it was time to go to bed. “I want my mommy, I want my mommy, I want my mommy, I want my mommy.” Over and over and over.

Sunday morning started out the same as Saturday’s had, bickering. I suggested they go out and let me fix breakfast and I’d call them when it was ready. You’d think I slammed the door in their face. I told them to go to their room if they were going to continue screaming and yelling.

I put the baby down for a nap before church and told the older 2 if they woke her up they were going outside. They woke her up by bickering. I sent them outside. They wailed. They were alright in church. They started to get restless about half way through. Went to the store afterwards and headed home.

Claudia and Rich came out and bought Lerica out to ride HD. Things went okay. Bed time came and they cried a little then went right to sleep.

What a weekend. I have them tonight since Christine has a 2 ½ hours class tonight. Just another day at the farm.

It’s Turning Cold

The nannies haven’t had the kids yet. I may have to move them over to the barn soon. The nannies were supposed to have the kids by end of August. It is now the beginning of October.

The visiting kids and my nephews rode HD yesterday. Christine and I worked with Lacey. She is a stubborn old horse. Someone broke the bottom strand of the electric fence across the pond. They just left it there all coiled up in the pasture. It looks like who ever it was, was getting something out of the brush on the other side of the fence. They just pulled what ever they were after through the fence and left it.

I still have the uck. My throat is raw. My head is congested. I don’t ache that much but I am tired. I slept in the recliner last night so I wouldn’t keep Christine awake and I needed to be elevated a little because of my sinuses. I think it is going to be a short day at work.

The auction was listed in the Bonny Buyer Tuesday. I see the “secret room” is cleared out. Everyone at the farm knows how much I want my own area. That’s all I ask. Out of these 30 acres, I just want an area to call my own. We’ll see. It’s just another day on the farm.

Approaching Auction

I still feel like poop. My head is congested, my body hurts, and I’m coughing uncontrollably. Other than that I feel fine.

The inside of the barn looks nice. Kathy cleared and reorganized the inside contents for the auction next week. There is still a lot of stuff in that secret room. I guess we are supposed to help with the loading of the hay racks and store them in the barn. That means I have to fine a place for the tractor, lawn tractor (mower), and the “jalopy” (Lawn tractor w/o the mower deck on it), we use it for a utility tractor. Randy said he isn’t helping. I don’t blame him. The only reason I’m helping is to clear out the “Secret room”. Delores already wants to pull the shelves out of the room. I don’t care as long as she gets her stuff out. The reason she is so eager to get those shelves out is because she doesn’t want anyone to use them. Heaven forbid someone use something of hers w/o paying her some kind of fee.

While the snow birds are gone for the winter I am going to be busy in the barn arranging it and making sure Delores has no business in it. I am also going to put locks on the doors. Since we will be the ones there I feel it needs to be secure.

I can’t wait for the auction. I may even video some of it. Mostly the expressions Delores makes when her “prized” processions don’t fetch a King’s ransom like she is counting on. I would have a different outlook on her if she wasn’t so “me-me what about me” all the time. I will always remember her as the person who will screw over family, friends, and strangers to get what she wants. Soon I won’t have to worry about her being out here for a while.

The day care is going ok. We still need to get organized with the paperwork. I need to step up and start doing more. Having Foster kids is a little time consuming. We have to have them do more around the house. Clean their rooms, put their clothes away, and help with household chores. We get there. Just another day at the farm.

Got the flu

Christine and I both have the flu. The visiting baby was up at 3:30 Monday morning and 2:30 Tuesday morn. She went back to sleep around 3:30 AM. I woke up at 4:45 in a pool of sweat. I decided it would be better to go to work than stay home with the day care kids.

The visiting kids seem to be getting better. Last night they didn’t give me any trouble. Christine had class last night and the kids had a visit with their mom. They came back in a good mood. Christine has to teach a class tonight. I will have them from 5:30 PM to 10:00 PM. They go to bed at 800 PM.

I am soo tried. This flu is kicking my butt.

Not much going on at the farm. No baby goats yet. Randy fenced in a new pasture. Apollo is still there. The chickens are still laying 1-3 eggs a day. I’m waiting on this auction to get over with. I’ll be glad when I get that secret room. I still don’t know if Claudia is going to live out there.

Just Another Day

After work I went in search of a six-sided 7/8 inch comb wrench. I couldn’t find a six-sided. All I could find were twelve-sided combo wrenches. $12 for a single wrench, what are these manufactures on …crack? We already have a 12-sided wrench so I went home. I met Christine, Kathy, and Randy at the end of the lane. They were waiting for the kids to get off the school bus.

I went on to the house to change clothes before the gaggle of kids come storming down the lane. I fixed the training wheels on one of the bikes that one of the big kids (I know which one) got on and messed up. The older kids, 2 of them are out of control.

After the child care kids left we took the bikes out and went for a stroll with our visiting kids. One of the kids bought back 2 eggs from the hen house. The other one went with Kathy over to Delores in search of a clipboard for school Thursday. I kept the baby in the stroller. She was playing with a toy and content.

After dinner we went out to do chores. We went to the chickens first. A couple of the hens were a little leery of going in the coop. I noticed a stick in there. The 2 older kids had disappeared for a while after getting off the bus. I wonder if they were terrorizing the chickens and threw a stick at one and it landed in the coop. Looks like a new rule has just been made. “No one over by the chickens without me”. If you are found over there you get one waning. The next time you’re found there you are outta here.

We went over to feed the goats and Randy and Sharon (Apollo’s owner) were standing looking at HD (Christine’s horse). Apparently HD had something stuck in her throat and was drooling profusely. It is about 6:30 PM so we decide to call the vet. Mike (the vet) comes out around 8:00 PM. By this time what ever was in the horse’s throat was gone. Mike said it probably went into her stomach and she’ll have to pass it. That’s going to be an expensive poop. After hours service call = $$. Thanks HD.

I put HD and the other horses out in the pasture. By the time I got home it was 8:45 PM. I still hadn’t eaten dinner yet. This is the 2nd night in a row I didn’t get to eat until after the kids went to bed. Some thing about this routine has to change.

Still no goat kids. I do have to trim the goats’ hooves. The mares got into the feed the other day. The chickens look like they may be molting. There are feathers covering the coop floor. It’s just another day at the farm.

The Morphing of the Farm

{Recap}

Out here my wife is running a child care activities center. We have children coming and going. Things get a little heated between children. We also have Christine’s grandparents, Christine’s parents, and Christine and I living out here.

Christine’s G-parents are in the process of having an auction to sell off their stuff and RV full time. Christine’s parents retired 2 years ago and pretty much work full time keeping the farm up. They say they work harder now than they did when they had jobs.

Christine and I are like to ships in the night. Some times our schedules allow us to actually talk to one another instead of text messaging and emailing. We need to make time for ourselves.
Juggling child care children, foster care children, animals, farm maintenance, and work schedules are hectic. Things are bound to get crazy.

The Bartering Begins

We talked with Christine’s G & G Wednesday about renting the trailer. Money-Gruber Delores is already trying to screw us over. I’ll had to say, she is consistent in the fact that she will screw over anyone, family or stranger. We said we would charge her “X” amount for the trailer lot. The same amount she charged us back in the early 90’s. You think she would be happy about this, you know inflation and all.

Anyway, She says she called a trailer park in Danville and got a price for a trailer lot. She probably asked for the cheapest price knowing her. The price is half of what she charged us. Milford said the price we are asking is a fair price. Delores just wants more of the almighty dollar in her pocket at the expense of family. Side note: I’ll be glad when she is off the property. I can’t hardly stand looking at her.

Well it looks as though Claudia and Rich are going to rent the trailer. We have to draw up a contract. I can see now I’m going to have to tell Delores it’s my way or the highway. She didn’t have a problem calling around Burlington to get a “fair” price for Christine and I to pay to her for lot rent. I foresee me telling Delores to forget the agreement and move the trailer off MY property. Did I mention I’ll be glad when she goes south?

I just called a mobile home park. The rent for a lot is $155. I little more than we are asking so let Delores start her whining now.

Getting Ready

It’s a time of change.

I am working on my car so I can change vehicles. I changed the spark plug wires and checked the front brakes. The brakes looked fine. I wonder why it sounds like the brakes are gone. Maybe it is the rotors. I’ll add them to my list of things to do. The van is about to loose the toque converter. After work I thought I was going to get stranded. The torque converter started slipping.

On the car I have to change the downline oxygen sensors on the exhaust on the car and it should be ready to roll. I still need to replace the front and read rotors, but that can be done a little later.

I am going to change the location of my goats soon. I am going to bring them over to the barn for the winter; there is water, heat, and shelter there for the kids.

The auction is 3 weeks away. It will be here soon. I can’t wait. I’ll be glad when all that stuff is gone. I am curious as to how much money the auction will bring.

I am still trying to get Apollo out of here. He is too unruly to stay here. I believe Sharon wants to keep him here. That is not an option. He has until the middle of Oct to be removed. If not, I will remove him.

Auction Prep

I see hay racks showing up at the farm. The day is getting near. I can’t wait. In my best Gollum voice...{Soon my precious it will all be mine.}

The other day I took the cast iron bell from in front of the screened-in porch to put up by our house. The very next day Christine’s grandpa came walking around by the house. I went outside and he told me he was looking for the bell. He walked right by it. He had to see it. I told him we moved it up to the house. He informed me that they were putting it on the auction. I took it down within the hour in the rain. I took it to the barn and put it by their pile of junk on the floor.

Christine asked where the bell went. I told her what her G-pa had said and she decided that was the last straw. She doesn’t even want to be around for the auction. The only reason I’m going to be here is to make sure Money-grubber G-ma doesn’t sell off any of my stuff.

I can’t wait until Delores asks me if I am going to bid on anything at the auction. I have been rehearsing my response, “No I don’t think so. There is something about bidding on family heirlooms that make them loose their sentimental value. Let some other family have it.” Money-grubber is hoping to play on the emotions of the family to put up big money for family mementoes. The thing about that is most of the family doesn’t have excess money to spend nor do many of them care to buy the stuff. Delores is a miserable woman who enjoys making others miserable and causing grief among her family. {After thought…I wonder if you can rent pall-bearers. She’ll need to.}

In less than a month I am hoping the grand parents are gone for the winter. I’m going to put fences and structures up while they’re gone. When they come back in the spring they will know I’m ready for Delores to be gone. COME ON October 10th.

Crazy Weekend

What a crazy weekend. It rained all day Saturday. Our pond ran on shore by about 6 feet. Christine had a touch of the flu and we had four…yes 4 foster boys ages 12, 11, 8, and 5. When the rain slacked up, the boys and I would go out and go fishing. When the rain came down harder we would keep fishing. The temp was warm so it wasn’t bad. We didn’t catch any thing. We lost a bunch of lures and bobbers.

The boys were good for the most part. They played air hockey and computer games. We definitely have to get inside games for older children.

Sunday was better. We went to the River Front and skipped stones in the river. The boys ran along the river. We went to Snake Alley. The most crooked road in the world according to the Guinness Book.

We went back home and went fishing and rode in the paddle boat. Over all it was a good weekend.

Performance

We performed at the local Farmer’s Market Thursday.
We got a very positive response. The local newspaper did an article on us for the Lifestyle section http://www.thehawkeye.com/Story/Belly-Dancers-091408
We had a drumming session close to the end of the performance. Some market goers started dancing with us. It was great.
A good friend of ours is moving to NY for health reasons. We are going to miss him. We are hoping to go visit him in the near future. We are looking at taking the train out there. That would be a blast.

Money Grubber

Just as I figured. The money-grubber is at work. Delores is figuring out a way for her to capitalize on family. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Claudia (Christine’s aunt, Delores daughter, Kathy’s sister) and her husband Rich were talking about renting Delores and Milford’s trailer. Claudia talked to Milford and Delores about it and the very next day Delores calls Kathy (under the guise of wishing Kathy and Randy happy anniversary) to discuss the renting of her trailer. She wanted to know if Christine and I said Claudia and Rich could rent the trailer.

Kathy told Delores that Claudia would have to pay lot rent of $125, the same price Delores charged Christine and I when we moved out there. Delores was like, I didn’t think about that. NO SHIT. She doesn’t think about the possibility of having to pay for anything. It’s all Take with her.

It is just as I promised. This winter is going to be busy and could get heated. Perhaps even a couple of family hurt feelings. Delores is already counting the money. She says she doesn’t want to have an auction, she doesn’t want to move, BUT she is willing to rent her trailer for a year until she decides to move back. HER lying ass, she sees another way to soak family out of money for her own greed. This lady is truly a case study.

I do not like where this is leading. I was hoping to get rid of the trailer on the hill. If Claudia doesn’t rent it, no one else is. Not her daughter or any cousins, or anyone else. This isn’t a family spring board. I seem to remember getting burnt before helping members of Christine’s family; you think they would have learned from the last time.

Here is my prediction. Claudia and Rich won’t move out to the farm. Delores extends her money-grubbing hand to other family members and suggests they move out to the farm in order to get money from them. Under the guise that she is helping them out in their hour of need.

I say no one is moving out here. I become the bad guy because I don’t want people living out here, except for my in-laws. They are the only ones that have given a damn about the place.

Delores will mope and whine about being forced to move or do without because she can’t afford (Fill in the blank). She’ll blame everyone else for her woes, all the while causing strife throughout the family. I will move her shit from the secret room in the barn to the garage hooked to the trailer. I will take over the secret room. Why? Because the barn is supposed to be mine.

It looks like a storm is brewing. Let it come.

Things Starting to Move

Well the auction pendulum has swung to the “I didn’t want to have an auction” side. Delores is blaming Milford for wanting the auction. I’m sure she is fishing for pity. She was the one seeing $$ in her eyes. Now she doesn’t want to move. They are fixing the floor in the trailer the flooded. Insurance is paying for some of the repairs. It looks like they will be there for a while. That’s okay. I am moving forward with my plans for the barn area. I’m turning it into a communal area. I would like to put a gathering area where the trailer is. This winter will be busy.

My in-laws pulled out Sunday. They are taking a couple week vacation. Wish I could of went with them. They are planning to be back for the auction.

It looks like now the mower and tractor are back on the auction block. Delores wanted to put the furniture from the trailer in the barn. That would of meant that my tractor go outside. I don’t think so Willis. She can put HER furniture in HER garage. I will let her put a hayrack with her stuff on it in the barn the night before the auction if it looks like rain. Other than that she can figure it out herself. She wouldn’t help us out if there wasn’t anything in it for her. I’ll be glad when Oct 10th gets here. That’s auction day.

After the auction is over I am putting a lock on the barn. It is mainly to keep her from putting more of her shit in there.

Mat came and picked up Roscoe the dog. Roscoe was visiting the neighbors unannounced. I figured he better go before someone whacked him. Mat also took the cats. I guess the boys still wanted them. I wasn’t aware of that. It was my understanding that the cats weren’t going over to where Mat is. I guess they did.

We went to the last animal swap of the season. We came home without any animals. That is awesome. Now that we are gearing up for winter, we need to get Apollo out of here. I can’t afford him out there anymore. It looks like I’ll have to put a date on the removal. I don’t know how aggressively Sharon is looking for another place for him.

It rained most of the day. It will be a little longer until I can finish mowing the yard.

What a Weekend!

Gustav heading for my relatives in Biloxi, MS. They weren’t hit too badly. A limb fell on my youngest daughter’s car. Messed it up a bit, broke the tail light and dented he roof a little.

We had three children stay with us for the weekend. They are 17 months, 3 & 4 year old. Pretty good children really. We hung around the farm all weekend. They enjoyed helping me with the chores. They liked the cats and horses the best. The goats pushed them around trying to get to the food. The chickens didn’t hold their interest at all, until the rooster crowed. After that we were back to see the horses. They liked sitting on the horse while it ate.

Still no kids from my goats. Peaches is still limping but getting better. I am looking at getting rid of the cats (I got the go-ahead) and turning the lean-two into the winter goat shelter. I all ready have buyers for my kids and they aren’t even here yet. I will work on the pen today. I have to get some photos posted.

Randy and Kathy bought some saddles and blankets from the Kalona horse sale. Looks like we may be able to start riding those horses now. We put up a temporary grazing area this weekend for the horses. I have the jigger bites to prove it.

Job Uncertainty

Buzz is going around about cut backs. Some of the engineers upstairs gone the axe. I hear 25 were let go. Some more are scheduled to be released in Oct. Tech writers are compiling a list of projects we still have going in hopes we can keep our jobs until the economy picks up. My inside voice {Good luck with that.}

I look at it like this;I will find something. I will make money somehow, legally of course. I can raise goats, sell chickens, eggs, handyman services, childcare activities, I will think of something. Who knows, I may not even have to worry about layoffs. My boss is meeting with her boss next week to discuss the 09 budget. I hope she tells us what is coming down the road instead of showing up one day and telling us to clear out our desk. I dreamt Tuesday night I got laid off. We'll see if this is to pass.

TGIF

It seems like this has been a long week. Finally, Friday is here. I am getting rid of my 5 roosters today...yay. I'll be down to 1 rooster and about 20 hens.

Peaches is still limp on that leg. I noticed her hoof needs trimming. I was going to do it yesterday but I couldn't find the trimmers. While I was out in the barn I found them laying in the dirt (nice). I will clean them and trim Peaches hoof today.

We are watching 3 children for the weekend. It is going to be a long weekend. We are having some friends come out Saturday for a New Moon gathering with a bonfire. It will be interesting with 3 young ones (17 mos., 3 & 4 yr old). What are we thinking?

I was hoping to build the goat kid's pens today. I brought the wood over to the goat pen yesterday.

I am looking at using flashing for the roof cap on the barn. The caps for the tin we used costs $39 for 10 feet. Our barn is 47 feet. Flashing is only $11 per 10 feet. Flashing it is.

Wednesday, pretty quite

Yesterday went pretty well. Randy and Kathy went to Iowa City for an appointment. Christine went to SCC (college) to prep for her online class. She got good news. The college had to turn students away because there aren’t enough professors to teach online classes. If the college turns students away for two semesters, the college will hire an instructor for that class. That would be sweet if Christine could get full time at SCC. Overall it was a lazy evening.

At my place of employment (CASE New Holland) an Italian engineer is visiting. I hear he is the one in charge of lay offs for the engineer group. He has laidoff about 25 engineers I hear. He may be doing another round of layoffs. We’ll see. The company is looking at redesigning current product models instead of creating new models. Times are getting tough. Changes are coming. Better start digging the well now before we run out of water.

Goat update

I have to get that goat area fixed up before the snow flies. The kids should be here the end of the month. Hazel, the mature nanny, has a knot in her milk bag. That has me worried. I have to get goat milk supplement for her kid’s. Peaches is still limping. I think she aggravates her hoof during the day. I hope her birthing goes well.

Peaches should have her kids around the same time as Hazel. Their milk bag still looks pretty small. The bags don't look developed yet. We'll see.

They’re outta here

The 5 roosters that is. Someone from work has a friend that is going to take them. That will leave me with 1 rooster and about 20 hens. I probably should count them so I know if any are disappearing. I wanted to hatch some chicks to sell as meat birds but I think the weather is going to get nasty before I can collect enough eggs and incubate them. The incubation period is 21 days. If I started now it would probably be the end of September before I get chicks. I think I’ll wait until after winter. If I get to use the secret room (an enclosed room) in the barn I might try to hatch a batch.

The Saga Continues

It would seem my run of luck, be it good or bad depending on how you look at it, is continuing.

After work I decided to change the oil in the van and car. Starting with the car, I jacked it up, put the jack stand in place then discover I couldn’t get the drip pan in place to catch the oil. I had to reposition the jack. The cats, that aren’t mine, seem to enjoy using a corner of the barn for their bowel releasing pleasure. As I am changing the oil the reek of cat poop is nasty. They have 30 acres to use and they decide to use the inside of the barn.

After smelling and stepping in their droppings I decide to run them out of the barn brandishing a shovel. In and out they run. I finally get the oil changed in the car and start on the van. After loosening the oil filter and receiving a hot oil bath, not enjoyable at the least, I finally get finished with the oil changes.

My back still hurts from chain sawing Sunday. I get an early start on chores. It is about 6:00 PM when I finish with the vehicles. I get the cages I am using to keep my roosters in. I have 1 rooster per cage. They each have their own food & water bowl. These birds live better than I do. I throw some feed into the cages and luckily they congregate around the cages. I quickly grab them using my cat-like reflexes and put them in their respective cages.

Meanwhile the hens are in the coop during the day so they can remember to lay the eggs in the nestboxes instead of all over the farm, are getting excited seeing me throw feed to the roosters. They figure they are next to feast. I open the coop and let the hens out for some exercise. They run to where the roosters are and start trying to get the feed. I shake my head. I look in the nestbox and see 3 eggs. Better than finding 1 egg the other day. I feed them and move the roosters’ cages into the coop. I don’t trust those raccoons around here. I lock up the coop. The cats are back in the barn! I say a few choice words to encourage them to vacate the premises.

Kathy calls to me and says there is water standing in front of her parents’ trailer. Great. I finish up with the chickens and head over to the trailer. As I approach, Kathy tells me the toilet has been over-flowing and the inside is soaked. Again, Great…just what we need. The flapper in the tank stuck open and there must have been a clog in the toilet drain. The water just kept running. Sort of like my electric bill since the water pump is on my meter. Grrr.

Kathy gets to work cleaning up the place. Her parents are off RVing for the week so no one was at home when this happened. I’m sure Kathy won’t get any thank you’s from her mom. It will somehow be our fault that this happened. Her mom will blame someone else like she always does. She won’t appreciate what Kathy has done. Anyway, it happened.

I head over to the other barn and feed the goats. Peaches is still limping but not as bad. I get some 2X4’s down from the rafters so I can make the kidding pens Tuesday after work. I have to coyote-proof my goat pen before the kids arrive. As I am carrying the wood across the pond damn I see my dog with something hanging out her mouth. It is a small rabbit. That dog is a good hunter. I congratulate her on her hunting prowess and continue to the main barn carrying my 2X4’s.

Randy meets me half way and asks me to help him with the lawn tractor. We have to get a tensioner spring on the mower deck to connect onto a post. We end up putting a ratcheting strap on the movable tension bar and the stationary post and tightening the strap. It worked great. We did however have to cut the strap off.

After that and sending another 15 minutes chasing the cats back out of the barn I decided to head home. It is 8:30 now. Time to eat some pasta and fresh green beans. My mother-in-law had made supper earlier, before the flooding episode. I’ll miss her when her and my father-in-law leaves for the winter. My wife was at the studio during all this. Who wants to be me? I do! What a day. I can’t wait to see what Tuesday brings.

Hectic Weekend

Saturday morning turned disastrous while yard-saling. We were backing up in the van to turn around and hit a fire hydrant. It smashed the left side of the rear bumper of my in-laws van. My wife was driving at the time. That is going to cost us $500 deductible. I didn’t even see the hydrant and I walked by it! It was located right by a drive way. It was painted Forrest green and has a white top. The concrete it was on was a light white and the grass in the yard was green. The city of West Burlington is smart I’ll tell you.

Later that day my wife drops her Blackberry in a puddle of water. It won’t turn on. We have insurance on it but it still cost us $50 bucks.

Sunday afternoon one of my pregnant goats starts bellowing. My wife tells me something is wrong with one of the goats. I run down the hill and she was lying on the ground feet uphill. I go over to her and she tries to get up but isn’t able. I see she has one of her hoof clef stuck in between a fork in a sapling. I free her hoof and check for breakage. I feel the clef joint pop back into place. She is walking on it gingerly.

My wife and I started putting up an electric fence around the parameter of the property. We drove in close to 30 steel tee posts with a driver.

Christine and her parents went into town to get a few things. Later I’d find out they picked up more fence posts.

While they were in town I cut every sapling down that could cause a problem for my goats. My back is sore from leaning over using a chainsaw for close to 2 hours cutting these saplings down. Seen poison ivy around the area and went in to take a shower. As I was getting ready to go in to shower Christine and parents came home.

I went in to shower in case I had gotten the poison ivy on me. I no sooner finish the shower and sit in the recliner and I hear Christine driving in fence posts. I get up and go out and help her drive the rest of the posts.

After that I go and do chores. I feed the goats. I check Peaches (the goat that fell) hoof. She is still limping on it. I can tell it is still tender. I put hay in their trough and check their water. The horses see me and start coming up thinking I’m going to feed them. They had already been fed a little earlier. I check their water and it is low. The owner of one of the horses sat over by the horses all day and didn’t even put water in the trough. So I had to do it. It is now 7:30 PM. I still have the chickens to feed.

After I finish feeding and watering the goats and horse I head over to the other barn where the chickens are. I have my rooster (5 of them) separated from my hens. I have one rooster that runs with the hens. {Note to self: I might change him out and let one of my younger rooster’s run with the hens, I think on it}.
All the hens follow me to the coop. I check the nest box and see one lousy egg. I have close to 20 hens and I see one egg. I go in the barn and see 3 eggs on the floor next to the hay bales. I shake my head in amazement. All the nest boxes (about 18 around the coop) they lay their eggs on the floor by the hay. I feed the hens and release the roosters back to the coop. Inside the coop it is a feeding frenzy, as always. I grab my eggs and head home. I finally relax and eat super at 8:00 PM.

What an expensive and hectic weekend.

On the Farm

We are supposed to get another horse Saturday. She is a mature mare, 12 or 13 years old I believe. This one is for me to train and work with. That will be three horses out at the farm.

The hens aren’t laying well. Out of 15-18 hens I have only been getting 3-6 eggs a day. I have been told that the 6 roosters I have (trying to get rid of) is the problem. Since I am vegetarian I don’t want to dress the roosters out just to give them to someone else to eat. Everyone wants free range chicken, but they don’t want to clean them. I guess that puts them too close to their food. Most people I’ve talked to doesn’t want to see how their food gets from hoof to plate.

I think if more people had to process their own food their eating habits would change. I think you would see more vegetarians and Raw veggie eaters. Of course they (meat-eaters) wouldn’t admit it.

I am going to salvage some wood from my brother-in-law’s corn crib to enclose our barn (animal shelter). He lost his house to the flood and is going to clear the land.

I have to get the enclosure done because a couple of the nannies are going to “kid” (birth) the end of August. These next couple of weeks is going to be busy. But then when isn’t it busy around here.

Past weekend

It was a pretty laid-back weekend. We swapped some gates around in the barn across the pond. Did a little ground work with the horses.

We are trying to keep the chickens out of the barn while allowing the cats and kittens access to outside. We put a covering in front of the the sliding door with an outlet for the cats to go through. Those chickens keep going through the opening and getting into the cats food and knocking over the water bowl. And pooping every where.

The cats are pooping in the barn and it stinks. that's the reason we are trying to let the cats outside.

The shifter for the tractor is stuck in 1st gear. We can't get it out of gear. We will try to take the shifter plate off and fix it. The place we have tractor work done at is cutoff by flood water. We can't wait for the water to recede.

Bringing you up to date

All is well in the "Commune".

Well we have a bigger family unit. Mat and Julie are staying with us for a while. Their home got flooded. That has to be heartbreaking. The waters are still up to and in the house. They are in limbo about what the government is going to do. We all know how the government is. SLOW.

The animals are getting along pretty well. My rooster is a bully. He keeps trying to rein supreme over the other rooster. The cats are getting use to seeing each other. They still maintain a distance from one another. The dogs they run, eat, sleep, and the other stuff dogs do. They get along well.

Christine and I are surrounded by meat-eaters. It hasn't been a problem though. Everyone respects our veggie lifestyle.

Some of the roads have washed out. Some are still under water. The majority of the cleanup hasn't even started yet. The stench from the stagnate water is getting ripe.

We have had rain for the pass 3 nights. Each accompanied with thunder, lightening, and winds. Just what we DON'T need.

I'll post later. Carry on.

What a night!

After work Thursday, Christine and I went out to my bro-in-law's house. We pretty much got every thing out of the house, including the AC unit outside. Hope he isn't pissed about that (I didn't do it). We (Christine and I) somehow wound up with Rosco (Beagle), 5 chickens (1 roo and 4 hens), and 5 cats (2 adults and 3 kittens). Ummm, I wonder how that happened. It's all good.

The river isn't supposed to crest now they say until Wednesday. It is supposed to get 23.6 - 24 feet. A couple of levees have broke north of here. In Wapallo and around Oakville.

We got quite a bit of rain and wind last night. Nice lightening show. The tin roof held on the shelter house/barn across the pond. I am going to try to put the ridge cap on this weekend. We have been lucky so far.

This flood is like preparing for a hurricane. You know it's coming but you don't know exactly when or how bad it will be. I guess we hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

I'll keep you posted. Burlington Steamboat Days has cancelled it's activities. I think it is the first time it has happened. The Old train depot is surrounded by water (yes I will post a photo).

Here come the Flood

The Mississippi River is supposed to crest at 24 feet on June 18th. My brother-in-law and his family are being evacuated today from his home. Christine and I are going there after work to help them move stuff up from the basement and first floor. My In-Laws are there at the moment helping them.

Here is a story about an evacuation.
http://www.thehawkeye.com/Story/evacuation-WEB-061208

The flood won’t affect us since we live away from the river. But a lot of the downtown businesses are worried. A couple of banks have closed already. This could prove to be interesting.

As always, I’ll post photos as I get them.

Animal swap

Went to the animal swap Sunday morning looking for some goats. We found a set that was in our budget but they looked scraggly. Christine and Randy found some good looking ones. Four Boer goats all nannies two with kids that are due at the end of August. The other two are supposed to be with kids. We'll see. Three of the nannies are yearlings and one is 2 years old.

We'll they bought them. My bank account suffered a major financial leak. If we sell off the male goats we can recoup our money. The seller delivered the goats to the house.

Randy and Christine put together a pen for the goats next to the chickens. Hopefully the goats will deter any predators that go after the chickens. Two of my older hens wouldn't go in the coop in the evening. I think they are unsure of the goats being there. I had to trap them in their old coop. I used a fish net on one of them.

The coop is finished

I finally finished the coop. It looks pretty good. The chickens spent their first night in it Saturday night. No mishaps Sunday morning when I let them out. I'll post photos later.

The coop

Finished the screening of the coop yesterday. I have to proof the edging around the bottom of the coop and it will be ready to test. I will test it using some bait is see if the raccoon's or possums can get in.

I'll be angry if they can. I spent a lot of time and effort on this.

I currently have 12 older chickens and 10 chicks. Plenty of room for more chickens in this new coop and I can put some in the old coop too. Or I can put a couple of goats or sheep in them. The animal swap is this weekend. Might bring home a new critter or critters.

Hot Tin Roof

WOW is it hot. Saturday Christine, Randy, Matt, and myself put the metal roof on the pole barn. We put 30 sheets of 13 ft., 24 ga. steel on the 24 ft. X 45 ft. barn. Poor Christine was feeding the sheets up to Matt and I. She was hating life, but she stuck to it. I'm proud of her. Randy was helping sometimes. Kathy was fixing dinner (Mexican). It was good.

Sunday I didn't do much. Randy and I went out and tied the trusses together on the pole barn. Then went to Warren's farm to look at some Morgan horses. We are looking to breed HD to his stud and maybe get a yearling colt for me to work with. The price is a little high so he'll work on him.

Christine and I also started our Cleanse Sunday morning. We are shooting for 10-12 days. We went 7 days last time we started. Basically it is a detox cleanse. Ridding the body of toxins from processed foods and other "not good for you" products that we put in our bodies.

It was rough getting up this morning. Now here I am in the cube wishing I was doing a hundred other things at the farm. Expecting rain tonight. Hope the roof holds.

Horse Woes

Christine rode her horse (HD) Thursday evening. Apollo went crazy in the pasture being by his self. I had a halter and lead rope on him trying to brush him and apply fly spray. As HD went out for a ride Apollo reared up and I had to let the rope go or take a chance of getting hit. I hate to say but Apollo is either going to get worked by me during the day, every day or he finds a new home. I can't have an unruly horse at the farm with elderly and young people around.

Chicken coop

I almost have the new chicken cop finished. I am picking up the last of the wood today. I will check the security of the coop this weekend. I will do this by putting tuna fish cans inside the coop and see if anything can get to it. I'll let you knoe the outcome. I'll post photos this weekend.

This morning as I drove down the lane to go to work I noticed the live trap was closed. I looked inside and it was empty. I suspect someone was playing with it and triggered the release. I reset it so hopefully it will be occupied this evening.

Much needed update

Been busy lately so I haven't had a lot of free time to write. Christine and I went down to Biloxi, MS to visit my relatives. It was nice spending time with my grandson and everyone else of course.

While we were gone a racoon got into my chicken coops and thinned out my flock. I lost about 6-8 chickens. A couple of them were laying hens. When I got back home I set the live trap and caught 2 racoons. I relocated them to the after-world.

Christine's belly dance troupe, www.tribalattitude.org, and friends performed at the local casino. It was a blast. We received a lot of positive feedback. May do it again next year.

Gas prices are killing us ($3.79 a gal). It costs a small fortune to cut grass. We are looking at getting a few sheep and goats. I'm still waiting for my horse to be purchased. I'll hold my breath.

I am in the process of building a bigger coop. I am building it in the lean-to off the barn.

Planted the garden this past weekend. We didn't put as much in it this year as we did last year. Hopefully we have enough to last through the winter.

Return of the Snowbirds

The weather is warming and the snowbirds are returning to the farm. Christine’s grand parents came home yesterday. Her parents ought to be home in a week or two. Our routine has already changed. We have to close the blinds at night, be fully clothed when going outside, and consider the time before starting to work in the morning.

During the winter

This year started off rough. We had record snow fall, rain, and ice. It is mid April and we had a little snow flurry last week. The weather kept Christine and I inside for most of winter. All the animals made it. The chicken eggs were freezing and cracking in the nest boxes with a few hours of the hens laying them.
The tips of my fingers were numbing by the time I would complete chores. I wasn’t able to clean the barn any. I did manage to take the barn heater down. I was thinking about trying to do a little personifying in the barn but it’s a communal area so I left things the way they were. We did some rearranging in the barn for the winter but de-rearranged it for the spring. In other words, we put the clutter back.
Christine and I put up an electric fence for the new horse area. The area is across the pond. We still have to roof and enclose the structure to house the horses. I trimmed up some trees and cleared some areas for future construction sites. One site is for my chicken coop. My Maran rooster has become aggressive. I have to keep him away from people or he will come up from behind and spur you. He is just doing his job. I think he will become part of an entrée.
Just like the changing of seasons, the dynamics of the farm are starting to change. Which way will the wind blow?

Farm lineage

Christine and I bought the farm. The family farm that is. This is how it came to be. Christine’s grandpa, Milford, received the farm from his parents. Milford and Delores (Christine’s grandma and Kathy's parents) sold it to Christine’s parents, Randy and Kathy. Randy and Kathy sold it to Christine and me.